Solar Cars by LC and MHS

   Solar Cars

    By LC and MHS

For the past months in science, we have been working on solar-powered cars. Firs,t we had to learn all about photovoltaics (solar energy) and electric circuits. We learned about energy and its connection to the sun and how electricity flows. After we mastered this concept, we decided to make solar-powered vehicles. We had to wait for the materials, but they came quickly. First, we had to separate all of our equipment. After that, we cut and measured balsa wood. It wasn’t that easy because all of our measurements had to be exact. Learning to use an Xacto knife was pretty tricky too. We spent a few days experimenting with gears. We discovered how they turned and how their sizes made differences in speed and torque. After we experimented with the gears, we had lots of gluing to do. We had to assemble our chassis (or car body) and axles. Once all of that was done, then came the gear/motor assembly. We got to choose our gear combinations that impacted the speed and power of the car. We glued on the motor and screwed on the gears. Then came the ambitious part. We had to solder alligator clips to battery packs and the solar panels. It was quite difficult to solder because we were dealing with 750 degrees tools. Thank you to Evan and Brett for helping us out with the soldering. Finally, completed the final steps which involved lots of glue. Protractors and rulers came out to make sure everything was perfect. We checked the angle that our solar panels were mounted to make sure it maximized the power.  We tested our cars and they worked! We had so much fun with this project!